


Something From Home

by inkheart9459



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-17 20:45:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13085031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkheart9459/pseuds/inkheart9459
Summary: For Christmas this year Kara wants to get Cat something a little more personal. She sets out to make Cat a gift straight out of her memories of Krypton, but Earth resources make that a bit of a challenge.





	Something From Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thetemptationisstrong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetemptationisstrong/gifts).



> Hi so I'm a chemistry PhD student and a complete science nerd so this had more science in it than perhaps the prompt should but hey I'm me haha. I hope you like it Thetemptationisstrong because it was super fun to write.

It had taken Kara most of the year to gather the materials she needed to make Cat’s gift. Earth and Krypton differed in their basic compositions enough that the metals that had been common on Krypton were decidedly less so on Earth. Iridium was one of the rarest metals on Earth and with the bulk of it being used in technology, especially phone screens now with the rise of organic LEDs, Kara had had a bear of a time finding an untapped source that she could use.

Titanium and zirconium for doping the iridium were much easier to find. With heat vision and invulnerable skin and the memory of the science of Krypton, it had been easy enough to mix the metals so that the iridium morphed from brittle to maleable. Seeing the mixture once it had cooled into the desired shape had caused her gut to twist. No other metal looked like it, and she still remembered what the light of Rao looked like glinting off the surface of this alloy. It almost didn’t look right in the light of the yellow sun. She traced the cool metal with a sigh. If Krypton had died another way, without the explosion, their structures would have stood for millienia. Iridium alloys were even more corrosion resistant than gold, combined with the living crystals that made up most of the structures, they would have stood the test of time.

Just like Cat’s gift would stand the test of time.

The metal had been the easier part, really. All planets were made of the same things in differing quantities, but the conditions of the planets varied, including their cores temperatures and pressures reached. Krypton had been more massive than Earth, closer to the size of Jupiter, really. That amount of land mass had created massive pressures and temperatures in their core hot enough to rival some stars. Some of the gemstones that had existed on her home planet could never be formed on Earth because the conditions they needed to form didn’t exist. The materials did, though, and so Kara had had to do a lot of planning.

The planning meant that Alex got involved, and Winn, and somehow Lucy and J’onn. Lucy it seemed just wanted to know what Kara had been making for Cat that was sending her all over the globe, but she hid it under the guise of approving DEO resources for the project. J’onn, Winn, and Alex helped actually design a vessel that could go up to the temperatures and pressures needed to form the gemstone that Kara wanted. Kara ignored the knowing looks J’onn sent her way as they pieced together titanium walls and tungsten heating elements and the complicated bellows system that made sure they could get up to temperature. So far she had convinced everyone that she just wanted to give Cat a piece of her homeworld, but she had a feeling J’onn knew more than he was letting on despite not being able to read her mind.

Teamwork and a lot of trial and error later with concentration ratios and heating profiles and a guide to solid state chemistry that Alex had picked up from a library that was probably older than all of them, but had been surprisingly helpful on instructions for picking times and temperatures needed to synthesize something, an area of study that Kara hadn’t yet delved much into in her studies on Krypton just yet, they managed to make the gem that Kara wanted. She held it in her hands, still hot from the furnace and watched as the midnight blue stone caught the light revealing little pinpricks of white that looked like stars. The name for it on Krypton roughly translated meant something like star stone. Whoever named it hadn’t been creative, but it was apt.

Kara closed her eyes, feeling the memories come. Her mother had had a necklace with a star stone pendant. Astra had had the matching earrings. Alura had told her that their parents had given them the jewelry after they had graduated from their respective academies and were about to start their careers. Astra had told her, once they were reunited once more that Alura had received the set and she had gotten nothing, but her sister had changed that, giving her the earrings despite what their parents had wanted. Alura had taken them back the day Astra was arrested, and that, more than most, had hurt deeply. 

She opened her eyes again, shaking off the memories. They were the past and there was nothing she could do to change them, but here and now she could make new memories. She blew out a breath, cooling the stone completely, and she used her x-ray vision to see tiny cracks in the structure. With her laser vision she cut and carved the stone until she had a perfect gemstone that caught the light readily. Now all she had to do was combine the gem with the band and everything would be good to go just in time for Christmas. She hopped on her toes in excitement.

 

\--

  
  


Cat’s apartment was perhaps the most decorated apartment in all of National City, what with the professionally placed decorations in every room plus those she had Carter had put up together as part of their yearly family time while he complained about her keeping all his hand made ornaments from ‘when he was a baby’ but did nothing to actually stop her, and then there was the contribution from the literal walking Christmas spirit incarnate that was Kara Danvers. Cat didn’t think that one more ounce of Christmas could fit in their apartment, no matter how large it was. She called it a crime to humanity, but she supposed both Carter and Kara saw through that.

She waited out on the balcony. Kara had been called out not long after Carter had opened his one present for Christmas Eve and they had all drank hot cocoa by the fireplace before Carter had went off to bed. He was far too old for Santa, but she supposed some holiday traditions were hard to let go of, after all, he’d told her, Christmas Day came sooner if you went to bed sooner. She had rustled his hair and smiled, agreeing.

So now she was alone as she waited. Kara had said it was a relatively minor accident and that she would be back within the hour. Still, Cat would worry and look out at the sky until Kara was next to her again. She always did and always would.

She shivered as a gust of wind blew. National City wasn’t cold by any true means of the word, but at night this high up after a bit of time you did need a jacket. She turned and headed inside to snag one of her cosier sweaters that never left the apartment. It was far too relaxed looking for her work image. Nevertheless it was her favorite at home. Especially after Kara had worn it around for a bit, inevitably forgetting clothes other than her suit or just loving the feel of the fabric and the smell of Cat near her. Cat didn’t blame her, but she had still told her that if she stole it for good Cat would come after her with kryptonite just to get it back. Kara had just snorted, but agreed to not steal it for good.

When she walked outside again, Kara was there in her suit, waiting for her. Cat padded over to the railing and leaned against it, sitting in silence for a bit.

“Everyone was ok,” Kara said, voice quiet, looking out over her city, watching for the first sign of something wrong. She was always like this for a few minutes after coming back home. It took a bit to relax back into herself, to not be constantly alert. Cat allowed her the time, remaining quiet but by her side, which she sensed Kara was grateful for.

“That’s good.” She rested her head on Kara’s shoulder.

Kara turned and kissed the top of Cat’s head. “So, Carter got a present early, what about the two of us?” She asked, words quiet and the wind around them almost carrying them away.

Cat snorted lightly. “I thought you would ask something along those lines. I had a present set aside that isn’t quite appropriate for Carter’s eyes.” She licked her lips at the thought of the package laying on their bed, waiting for Kara to open it and use it.

Kara stood up slowly so Cat would have time to adjust to standing. She flashed out of sight for just a second before coming back in a huge gust of wind. Cat rolled her eyes as she cleared the hair from her face. Superspeed had its advantages, yes, but it was certainly hard on her hairstyles. 

She looked down at Kara’s hands. In them was a small box she held gently. Cat’s mind ran through the possibilities of what it could be. With something that small it couldn’t be much. Or it could be. It just depended on Kara herself, which since she was a literal alien meant that her options could be rather vast.

“I, um, the things we made on Krypton were a bit different than here. Our planets have different amount of resources and such.”

Cat nodded along, sensing that needed to explain this, maybe more for her sake than Cat’s. 

“But that doesn’t mean I couldn’t find those things, it was just harder. So I wanted you to have a little piece of my world even if it really isn’t from there. I had to make it here actually. Alex, Winn, J’onn, and Lucy helped along the way, so, um, they should get some credit too, I mean--”

Cat put a finger against Kara’s lips. From here on it would just be babbling, so there was no harm in stopping Kara in her tracks. She reached out and took the gift with her other hand. It was heavy for a little box, which made Cat’s brain act up again, trying to guess what was inside. She’d always been one to shake her presents at Christmas, always guessing, always pleased when she guessed right, but this one had her rather stumped.

“I think I’ll just thank you, because it was your idea, and it is a piece of your home world. They’ll feel thanks enough in the gifts they’ll get at dinner tomorrow.” With as much time as Kara had spent picking out gifts for everyone, making sure they were perfect, she didn’t doubt it. Cat had been happy to bankroll everything just to see Kara so excited and happy about giving. Christmas may not be a holiday that she had grown up with, but Kara embraced it fully. 

Kara blushed and looked away. “Um, right, I really hope you like it.”

Cat wasn't about to lie and say that she would like it no matter what because Kara had made it. She'd been on the receiving end of some rather hideous homemade pottery, but this was Kara. She had better taste and knew what Cat liked better than anyone. She had a feeling she would like it and it would mean more because Kara had made it herself.

She peeled back the wrapping paper to reveal a navy blue velvet box. By context she couldn't imagine anything other than jewellery in a box like that. Well, considering Kara’s speech about the materials being the same but different that made sense. She probably was the only one who wasn't dating a jeweler that had a significant other who could make them jewellery. And definitely the only one who had someone make it with their bare hands.

She opened the box to reveal a ring and her heart skipped a beat. Oh. Oh god. They had just moved in together a few months before. Was this what she thought it was? It was a little fast even for someone with super speed.

“Are you proposing to me, Supergirl?”

Kara shook her head. “No! I mean, not yet, I mean, do you want me to be? Because that's where I see this going eventually but--”

“Not yet,” Cat finished for her. She relaxed a bit and looked the ring over. The metal was different, heavier than anything she'd ever worn before, and shinier in a different way than silver or white gold. She ran her fingers over it feeling how smooth it was. 

“What is the band made out of?” She asked absently. Her eyes had already fixed on the stone, watching as it caught the light and reflected it back, twinkling like stars at night in the middle of nowhere with no light pollution. She'd never seen anything even close to it. How in the world had Kara even made this?

“The band is mostly iridium with titanium and zirconium so it isn't so brittle.”

“And the stone?”

“It was called star stone on my planet, well, it translated to that anyway. It can't form on Earth because the temperature and pressure inside the Earth isn't high enough.”

“It's beautiful.” She slipped it on her right ring finger and it fit perfectly. It didn't quite feel right there, though, and she transferred it to her left hand. It sat there, shining up at her as if it had always been there.

God above living with Supergirl was making her a sap.

Kara looked at Cat's hand, that adorable little crinkle in between her eyebrows.

“What is it?” Cat asked.

“Well, I told you about how on Krypton most of our marriages were arranged, right?”

Cat nodded. So had Superman in his first lengthy expose, but Kara had really fleshed out the details and the cultural importance where Clark hadn't been able to. 

“When we're 13 our matches are announced, at 18 we get officially engaged and after we finished our education we married. There were different bracelets for each of those stages. It was tradition that people helped design their bracelet for their intended. I'd just submitted my first designs right before Krypton was destroyed. Um, and I may have used some of those design elements in that ring.” She rubbed her neck.

“So what you're saying is this is the Kryptonian version of a promise ring.” Cat fought the urge to smirk. She was long since past the innocence of promise rings, but this obviously mattered to Kara. 

“In a way, I couldn't imagine the great Cat Grant in a promise ring, but...you're my intended. I chose you myself, but maybe.” She bit her lip and looked at Cat, adoring, and with just a hint of the steel of her alter ego. “Maybe Rao helped just a little because I've always known it was you.”

Cat melted a bit at that, but she wasn't about go all go pieces. Instead she pulled Kara forward and kissed her long and slow. “You're my intended too, Kara Zor-El. And I've known that for quite a while too.”

Kara grinned that dopey grin she had every time Cat kissed her for more than a second. It was too cute, really, that even after all this time she got that reaction. 

“Now I've gotten my one present, let's head to the bedroom and you can open yours.”

Kara swallowed hard. “I think that sounds like a good idea.”

Cat smirked and led the way, just that extra bit of sway in her hips, all the while tracing the edge of the metal band with her thumb. The one thing she knew about Kryptonians was they always kept their promises and she was looking forward to it.


End file.
